Campaigners react to Shrewsbury North West Relief Road business case

Campaign group Better Shrewsbury Transport (BeST) has responded to Shropshire Council’s release of the draft Full Business Case (FBC) for the Shrewsbury North West Relief Road by accusing the council of ‘blatant lying’.

The long-awaited Business Case was published in a shock move on the council’s website on Thursday morning, forty-five minutes into the final session of council before the May elections. It prompted anger from opposition councillors and accusations that the Conservative administration was trying to avoid scrutiny.

The draft business case is dated November 2024, which means the council has been sitting on it for several months without releasing it to councillors, despite controversially sharing “confidential data” from it with external stakeholders like the NHS. Neither has it been officially submitted to the Department for Transport.

Its publication comes as the cost of the NWRR has soared to over £200m, with a commitment of only £54m from the Government.

Mike Streetly from BeST says:

"It’s no wonder the council didn’t want to release the Full Business Case earlier, because it’s a total work of fiction. It’s riddled with so much misinformation it would make Donald Trump blush. The council is misleading residents about the claimed traffic reductions from the road. Their headline figure of 5,500 fewer cars on Smithfield Road (around 20%) fails to mention the 6,250 extra cars that will be on Battlefield Link Road, or the 8,747 more cars on A5 Churncote to Mytton Oak junction.

"Meanwhile, the economic case for the road bears no relation to reality. The council claims the NWRR has a Benefit to Cost Ratio of 3.88 which would mean Shropshire sees a £3.88 boost from every £1 spent on the road (that figure is down from £5.33 in the Outline Business Case published in 2017). But the only way this £3.88 is achieved is because the documents aren’t using the latest £215m cost figure. When you update that, the claimed benefit to cost ratio is less than £2 for every £1 spent. The council is shamelessly putting its thumb on the scales to convince residents to back the road. This is blatant lying.’

"The council has claimed that the NWRR will produce time savings of 17 minutes. This figure is also disputed by BeST. The latest traffic modelling that underpins the business case is broadly the same as the 2021 modelling that has been widely criticised by transport experts on behalf of local business Morris Leisure.

"Time savings through the Smithfield Road corridor (Frankwell to Chester Street) are just 2 to 3 mins. Most other routes will only save a few seconds. Some like Berwick Rd will become snarled up completely due to the thousands of extra journeys being made along them.

"The council has also said that the NWRR will bring massive economic benefits claimed adjusted Present Value of Benefits of £289.1m. Yet this is actually a reduction from the £327m quoted in the 2017 Outline Business Case."

Mike Streetly, continued:

"Shropshire Council seems to have carelessly lost £40m of benefits since 2017! That’s separate from the £40m they’ve spent getting to this point. This is even after the council has had to invoke a mysterious £70m of ‘wider economic benefits’ to attempt to make the case for the road vaguely credible. Frankly I’m amazed that they released this figure since it shows there is no economic case for the road.

"Another key question that is not answered by the reports released yesterday concerns the Oxon Link Road as the business case only deals with the section from Holyhead Road to Harlescott. The traffic modelling in the report clearly implies that the Oxon Link Road has been built, but there’s no economic evaluation of that scheme in the document. Figures released last month show that the OLR costs have ballooned from £12m to £50m. The council has not said whether this has affected its decision to fund the project.

"The council has yet to submit the Full Business Case to the Department for Transport or issue the planning decision letter that would kick off the NWRR. With the May elections now looming, the council is close to entering ‘purdah’ which means there will be no opportunity for opposition parties to scrutinise and debate the Full Business Case. The Liberal Democrats, Labour, and the Greens are against the road with only the Conservatives in support and other parties like Shropshire First are yet to make their position known."

Finally, Mike Streetly added:

"Forget Schrödinger's cat, this is Schrödinger's business case. The council has published just enough to allow the Conservatives to campaign on its false promises in the May elections, but not enough time for it to be properly scrutinised and challenged by the opposition and the public. This is shameless electioneering. If the council was really confident in the NWRR it would have submitted the business case to the Government back in November. Instead, they’ve left the road stuck in limbo because they know the business case is a fiction.

"Between now and May voters should ask anyone seeking election who supports the NWRR who is going to pay the £150m shortfall in the budget. Nothing in this business case explains where this money is coming from. Councillors campaigning in parts of Shropshire outside Shrewsbury are entitled to ask why people in those areas should pay £650 per person for four miles of road in Shrewsbury. Whoever wins in May, there is no way Shropshire Council can build this road. In short: don’t believe the hype."

Who are Better Shrewsbury Transport?

BeST is an alliance of local organisations and individuals campaigning for urgent action to promote active and sustainable modes of transport that are the only effective ways to reduce congestion, poor air quality and road deaths/injuries in the town whilst transforming all our lives for the better.

The following organisations are members of the alliance: Shropshire Wildlife Trust, CPRE – Campaign to Protect Rural England, Friends of the Earth Shrewsbury Branch, Extinction Rebellion Shrewsbury Branch, Sustainable Transport Shropshire.

The campaign is also supported by local branches of the Green Party, the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party.